DOWNTOWN SAN DIEGO  The free rein that medical marijuana dispensaries have had in the city of San Diego is over as interim Mayor Todd Gloria has directed city staff to enforce the current law which doesn’t allow the businesses to operate legally.

Gloria made the announcement Thursday during his first weekly media briefing since replacing Mayor Bob Filner, who resigned Aug. 30 amid a sexual harassment scandal. Gloria updated reporters on a wide variety of issues, from managed competition to the Chargers stadium plans, but the biggest news dealt with dispensaries.

The new directive ends a period of lawlessness that began in January when Filner ordered police and code enforcement officials to halt their investigations into dispensaries. Filner wanted to allow them to be open while the city considered implementing a new ordinance to regulate the businesses.

Eight months later the city still doesn’t have an ordinance and at least 15 medical marijuana dispensaries opened illegally without rules under Filner’s lax enforcement.

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Gloria said he’s working to get the new ordinance before the City Council in January after it’s reviewed by community and planning groups. He said he can’t allow the existing dispensaries to remain open because it would be rewarding bad behavior.

“What we have to do though is provide a legal way for them to exist,” Gloria said. “Our current situation does not work. The solution is not to ignore the law. The solution is to change the law to allow them to operate in an effective fashion. What I want to do is provide some certainty for the patients who need it and to the neighborhoods who are afraid of it so we can tell them what the rules of the road look like. Right now we have none.”

Eugene Davidovich, local coordinator with the group Americans for Safe Access, a pro-medical marijuana group, said he’s disappointed that Gloria is focusing on shutting down dispensaries rather than getting a new ordinance adopted.

“Right now it’s on the back burner, but eradication is not on the back burner,” Davidovich said. “And that’s very sad because really who suffers here are the patients. ... Today they have a place that they can maybe go into and get their medicine. Instead of focusing on creating an ordinance, a place, a reliable location for them to get the medicine, he’d rather shut everybody down. They’re not going to have that access tomorrow or the next day. It’s very sad.”

State voters have approved the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes yet it remains illegal under federal law. Local municipalities have struggled with how to regulate the drug given that dichotomy.

The bottom line is dispensaries aren’t legally permissible in any land-use zone in San Diego, and those that are open are in violation. Dozens of complaints have been filed with the city, yet no action was taken under Filner.

The proposal under consideration would limit dispensaries to some commercial and industrial zones and require them to be at least 1,000 feet from each other as well as schools, playgrounds, libraries, child care and youth facilities, parks and churches. They also must operate as nonprofits, have curtailed business hours and hire security guards.